We often hear small and large success stories from our customers and users. They range from the small joys of being able to sync accounting with payroll software all the way to automating hundreds of hours of work across an organization. Our “Customer Success” series will showcase these stories to illustrate the value Workato integration can bring to various functions at any kind of organization.
This story is from Toast, a point-of-sale and restaurant management system. We’re pleased to have the chance to interview Michael George, Business Analyst.
Their Business Challenge
Toast’s sales representatives use Salesforce while their support representatives use Zendesk. They needed a solution to connect the two, and although a standard connector exists, it lacked customization options that met Toast’s specific workflows.
The Solution
Toast integrated Salesforce and Zendesk with three custom recipes. Their sales and support representatives now have full control over client information, enabling an easier and more efficient syncing of data on both apps.
Results
The Workato integration saved Toast’s 25 sales representatives 2 hours each every week, or a total of 100 hours weekly.
Michael George is Business Analyst at Toast and his expertise in marketing and sales operations as well as analytics and mobile intelligence drew him towards cloud-based apps. Toast’s easy-to- use Android-based Point of Sale software enables restaurants, nightclubs and enterprise franchises to operate more efficiently and connect with their customer base in new and innovative ways.
The Business Opportunity
A lot of restaurants and retailers use outdated POS systems and Toast saw an opportunity to introduce an innovative and modern all-in-one solution. Based on Android mobile tablets, the portable POS allows waiters to punch in data on the spot. With a growing list of clients, it made sense for Toast to use analytic-enabled cloud-based apps such as Salesforce, Zendesk and QuickBooks to better serve the evolving needs of its customers.
Workato: What made you look for an integration solution between the apps you use at Toast?
Michael: When systems aren’t linked, it takes longer for our teams to work. Getting reports and analysis done takes longer because we need to take it out of one app, analyze it in Excel, and then put it in another one. Scale this across a whole team, it’s a lot of wasted time. We came across Workato and it’s helped us link our Salesforce and Zendesk apps so that our reps have the best information about our customers.
Deploying Workato
“We came across other companies but had to pay a consultant a lot for integration and we didn’t want to go that route,” George says. “Other apps also seemed over complicated.” He therefore chose Workato, and he and his team deployed 3 custom recipes to substitute the standard integration between Salesforce and Zendesk. “If not for Workato, we would’ve just exported the data from each company and then use Excel as the intermediary to do the work, run our analysis, and our reports,” he says. Luckily, this time-consuming task has been completely automated. “Workato was a great solution to have a customized integration to own our liking.”
Workato: What would you have done to address the integration challenge if you weren’t using Workato?
Michael: We would’ve just exported the data from each company and then use Excel as the intermediary to do the work, run our analysis, and our reports. But there’s huge pain with this. Chances of mistakes go up, people forget or they get too busy and then everything halts until we get the data or analysis we need. This obviously isn’t turnkey like Workato is.
Better Visibility And Analysis Through App Integration
Saving 2 hours for each sales representative each week is not the only benefit of Toast’s app integration. “It has created better transparency,” George says. “And it makes our sales reps smarter during customer discussions.” Likewise, they do not need to ask someone to look up information, allowing for a greater visibility. All of these advantages mean that analyzing their customer data is faster, smarter and more efficient. Toast can therefore support clients throughout all their challenges, enabling them to manage restaurants or retail services in the best way possible.
Workato: What are the big benefits you get from Workato?
Michael: You don’t need to be a programmer to use it. It can handle complicated instructions and I can do it on my own. There’s also error logs. If something does go wrong, I can decipher what the problem is and troubleshoot it myself. If I need it, the support’s been great. It’s also been good to use the community. When I first started, I searched for recipes for the app integration I wanted and then modified it for myself. You can’t really find another tool that gives this flexibility and power, and I know it’ll last even if our system changes.
Read more about how integration can future-proof your support processes and eliminate manual work >
